Motorola To Axe Another 4,000 Jobs

James Quintana Pearce

Jan. 15, 2009 - 12:52 AM PDT
Jan. 15, 2009 - 12:52 AM PDT

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) announced today that is shedding another 4,000 jobs on top of the 3,000 announced last quarter, and reported preliminary fourth-quarter results that hinted that they will be worse than previously expected. Of the 4,000 job cuts, about 3,000 will come from its mobile device business. To put the reduction in perspective, Motorola has now reduced its workforce by about 16,000 since the start of 2007. Motorola said that they layoffs and other measures will help the company save about $1.2 billion this year. Release.

In the fourth quarter, analysts were expecting revenue of $7.5 billion, but between now they’ve revised their estimates to between $7 billion and $7.2 billion reports MarketWatch. The company said it also expects a net loss of 7 to 8 cents a share, compared to a profit of 2 cents a share that Wall Street had been expecting. In Q4, Motorola shipped 19 million wireless devices, which fell from 28.1 million handsets in the second quarter, claiming its sales were “adversely impacted by continued weakness in consumer demand and customer inventory reductions”. That’s probably true, but we’re likely to see more cuts until Motorola’s shipment figures stabilize.